A growing need exists for practical systems to prepare and process documents. One problem involves authenticating such documents as genuine in a wide variety of different forms. Another problem involves the detection of documents that are genuine but have been modified with regard to certain data. Still another problem involves recording data on a document as for confirmation or data capture. Accordingly, a need exists for an improved, economical, and effective document system for affording solutions to the various problems.
Many forms of documents are used to represent status or fact and accordingly to provide data of financial, commercial, or legal significance. For example, stock certificates and other forms of financial paper constitute a record of ownership but also carry considerable critical data regarding that ownership. A stock certificate might designate a specific individual as the owner of a certain number of shares in a specific company and relate such data to a specific certificate number. Of course, such information is critically important when the certificate is used to support any of a variety of transactions. In that regard, as suggested above, before transactions are based on a document, it should be authenticated as: (1) genuine and (2) bearing unmodified information. Thereafter, data on the document can be reliably captured for processing.
In general, there is considerable manual involvement in processing various documents. Accordingly, a need exists for an improved, effective and economical system whereby documents can be sensed for data to be processed (as by machine reading) and confirmed as being authentic both with regard to the basic material substance of the document and the informational content.
In general, the system of the present invention involves a specific document form, a process, and structures for producing and testing documents that are capable of individual verification both with respect to composition genuineness and informational content. In accordance with the disclosed embodiment, the document takes the form of a sheet of medium, e.g. paper, having a unique (substantially unduplicable) anticounterfeit characteristic which may be machine sensed. The document carries statistical data relating to the essential elements of the document, e.g. financial, legal, and so on.
The document also carries a record of an integral combination of the uniqueness data and the statistical data. In accordance with the disclosed embodiment, the combination data may be encrypted for subsequent decoding to enable comparisons of both uniqueness data and statistical data to verify the document and its content as genuine. The combination data may be recorded for optical perception (e.g. printed), magnetically, or both optically and magnetically.
The present invention embraces processors for the documents including structure for sensing anticounterfeit characteristic data along with certain statistical data, combining and recording the results as by magnetic recording or printing the document.
In accordance with the invention, an illustrative system tests the document by sensing combined data, decoding such data and performing comparisons with freshly sensed uniqueness and statistical data. Depending on the results of the comparison, the system may manifest the document as authentic with regard to substance and content.
As disclosed in detail below, the system hereof may be variously implemented using different media, document compositions, and techniques. For example, a variety of mediums might be employed having substantially unique characteristics for verification. Also, any of a variety of specific component structures may be employed in the system for producing and authenticating documents in accordance herewith.